Demo Videotape Main Points

This was talk #1 (of 3) for a group from CSCE 489 (then called CSCE 495) in fall 1999. The purpose of this talk is for the group to show a clear understanding of the problem (specified in the request for proposals), describe their general approach, and discuss specific design issues and solution options. The report is to focus on high level ``architectural'' issues more than on implementation details.

Project: A hardware accelerator to map BMP files to GIF. Since this accelerator (implemented on an Xess board with Xilinx FPGAs) communicates to the PC via the parallel port, performance enhancement hinges on an effective pipeline.

In their talk, note the following, most of which is discussed in the lecture on technical speaking:

They referred to the RFP
They focused on the problem and available options, not designs (that comes later)
They made good use of examples and animation
They had a good pace (though a bit rough at spots; their edge was gone since this was an encore presentation)
There were a few typos
They split up their presentation by topic
One person did introduction and conclusion and overview and introduced group
Each member introduced next presenter (another option: can instead have person #1 jump in each time, like news anchor)
They kept amount of information per slide low (created more slides when necessary)
They didn't say anything important that's not on a slide, especially specs, numeric info
The length was approx 30 mins
They gave a plan (e.g. will start with software implementation)

Also, when preparing your talks (this semester and in 489):

When reviewing slides, try to see them for the first time (like the audience does)
In the first two CSCE 489 talks, the instructor acts as project manager, and your job is to convince him that you should stay on the project. In the third talk, the instructor is the customer and decides if you get the contract.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!